Red-Rom Cuddles
by thekatqueen
Summary: (Slight Spoilers for Act 5) When Terezi watches a Dave from a doomed timeline die, she can't take it. She runs out of the room, a concerned Karkat following close behind. He finally catches up to her and fluffyness ensues. HOW DO I SUMMARIZE? Anywho, this is a different take on what happened when Terezi runs out of the lab crying. Reviews please?


This has been posted on AO3 under the name of Day 2: Cuddling Somewhere

* * *

My name is Terezi Pyrope.

I'm sitting in front of my computer, watching the doomed coolkid. Karkles is standing behind me, trying not to be conspicuous. I know he's watching me, but I ignore him. Turning my attention back to the screen, I smell Dave stir on his quest bed, then hop down. His bright green suit is sour and it tickles my nose. He tries sending me a message through pesterchum. It pops up on my screen.

- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gallowsCalibrator [GC] -

TG: well that was apparently pointless  
TG: now what  
TG: hello  
TG: terezi  
TG: whats up  
GC: :[

I send my reply and continue to watch. I watch as another bright green figure starts to appear accompanied by a high pitched noise. This sour lime green is laced with vanilla, the smell I've come to know as the scent of a guardian transporting. The figure solidifies and it's Jack Noir. Dave turns around, alerted by the sound. Resting upon Jack's canine face is a pair of Anime shades. Dave's facial expression shifts slightly, showing recognition in a slight frown. Jack pulls out his sword and in a swift and fluid motion, slices the skin across Dave's neck.

The scent of sweet candy apples spews forth, covering the scent of sour limes. The coolkid is pushed backwards with the force of the blow. He falls, more and more of the green fabric becoming stained red. The scent of candy apples drips from Jack's sword. His shades gleam, and in another flash of vanilla and lime, he's gone.

I can't take it. I feel the tears start to leak down my face. I try to stay still, try not to show anything. I can't let the other trolls see me crying over the death of a silly human. I somehow forget about the Cancer that was previously lurking behind me.

"Terezi?" I hear Karkat say next to me. He stops a tear from falling with his finger. It was a soft and gentle gesture, not one I really expected from our hot-headed leader. Unable to keep it in any longer, I shove him away. He stumbles backward, cussing. A sob rises in my throat and the tears fall freely from my blind eyes. I cover them and abscond as fast as I can to where the transportalizer lies unused. I hear Karkat call my name behind me, but I can't respond.

Hearing the transportalizer ping, I feel my surroundings change. I'm in a long corridor. I start running in what I think is the direction of my respiteblock. My legs are propelling me as fast as they can, and it's hard to tell where I'm going. I just keep moving.

After a while, I'm pretty sure I'm lost. I slow down, tears still falling. This tear in my chest is nothing new. Growing up without a lusus gets pretty lonely. I used to curl up on my pile of scalemates some nights and just cry, clutching Pyralsprite to my chest. None of the other trolls knew this, except maybe Nepeta. I haven't done that in a long time. I'm Terezi Pyrope, and I don't let things get to me. I just laugh it off.

But this is different. Even though I know he was just a copy of Dave, one that was doomed to die, I just can't stop crying. This is my fault. It's all my fault. Still crying, I lean against a wall and slide down to where I'm sitting, clutching my knees. I hope nobody finds me.

When I saw that teal drop slide down her face, something just came over me. I saw the normally goofy facade break down, and a foreign sadness just poured out of her. Wanting to do something to help, I try to not be the douche my future self sees me as. She flinched away, almost like I had shocked her. She stands up quickly and with a soft sob, roughly shoves me out of the way.

"What the fuck?" I yell, but she's already halfway across the room. Right before she steps on the transportalizer, I call out for her, but she doesn't respond.  
Looking around me, everyone is staring at either me or the spot where the Libra disappeared. Most of them look away after a moment. Nepeta gives me a big smile and from Kanaya, a knowing one. Gamzee yells from across the room, "So you gonna motherfucking find her or what?"

I can feel my mutant blood beginning to rush to my face and ears, so I walk quickly to the transportalizer, Sollux snickering at me the whole time.

"Shut it, Captor," I mutter as I pass him.

"Whatever, KK."

I step on the transportalizer and I'm instantly in a familiar long hallway.

"Terezi? Where'd you go?" I yell. I don't expect an answer, and I don't get one. I see a couple drops of a slightly turquoise liquid ahead of me. I figure this is the direction she headed, so I start off to find the blind troll. After a few minutes, I start to get a little concerned. Where was she headed? This corridor doesn't lead to her respiteblock.

A few yards later, I hear something. It sounds like sobbing. I take off running, following the sound. I round a corner, and I'm at a split in the hallway. Pausing for just a moment, I take the left one. Dashing around a couple more corners, I see her about 20 feet ahead of me.

She's got her back pressed against the wall and her legs up against her chest. Her arms rest on top of her knees, and her forehead up against her arms. She's curled up tightly, still crying. When I get about a yard away, she looks up. She faces her nose in my direction and takes a whiff. I imagine it's hard to smell anything with her nose running like that.

"Go away Karkat," she says, holding back sniffles. "I want to be alone."

I ignore her request and continue forward. When I get right in front of her, I lower myself to my knees.

"I said go away!" She tries to shove me away again, but I dodge her.

"Will you listen to me for just a second?" I ask harshly.

"No!" Another attempt to push me away.

"Damn it Pyrope! Shut your trap!" She jumps a bit when I yell at her. "I can't fucking stand to see you like this! Seeing you cry is one of the worst things ever! It pisses me off that you're crying over that fucking coolkid. He's an aloof little bastard that has an ego bigger than Skaia!"

"At least he cares about my feelings!"

"You think I don't care? Of course I fucking care!" Her blind eyes widen. I stop and lower my voice before I continue. "I care a lot. About you. You have no idea what it felt like to have to see you cry back there. You're one of the strongest trolls I know, and seeing you break down like that is something I don't like to see. I don't like seeing you with him, laughing and drawing those stupid pictures. But I can't do anything cause I've already fucked shit up with you pretty badly-"

She shooshes me by putting a finger over my lips. "But not completely."

Watching him get so worked up about seeing me cry, I felt the old skip in my blood pusher beat again. Karkat may be a short and shouty little troll, but his heart is in the right place. He can be really sweet when he's not going off about something or another.

The problem with Karkat is that he can never decide what quadrant he wants me in. At every turn he's switching between red flirtation and black. That's what drove me away in the first place. But I think it's time he decides.

Taking my finger off his lips, I ask him straightforward, "Which quadrant?"

He sighs, and replies in a defeated tone, "I still don't know. You're everything to me and I hate seeing you flirt with that coolkid, but at the same time, you infuriate me so much. I honestly can't decide." He sounds truly upset about this. I can smell the frown on his face, even though he's looking away.

I put my hand under his chin and pull his face back around to look at me. "Just so you know, Dave is not my matesprit. We just flirt as friends. He's like my moirail and," I falter and bow my head, releasing his chin. "And it's my fault he's dead." My eyes start to sting, signaling the return of tears.

In an unexpected move, Karkat swiftly pulls me into his lap. He starts rubbing my back in soothing circles, and again, I can't stop the tears from flowing. I wrap my arms around his neck and sob into his shoulder. He continues rubbing my back as I get his sweater soaked. He murmurs words of comfort that I can barely hear.

After a few minutes, the part of me that was so upset shuts up and the teal-tinged salt water stops flowing from my sightless eyes. Karkat stops rubbing my back and pulls me away slightly to look me in the face. "You okay?" He asks.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I pull his face towards me and kiss him lightly on the cheek. "Thanks."

He pauses for a short second, then hugs me tighter. "Anytime."

Being careful of my sharp horns, I rub my head against the underside of his chin. He brings one of his hands from around my back to stroke my hair, finger barely brushing my ear. I almost feel like purring. He smells so good. The scent of cherries running right under his skin is simply intoxicating.

He leans back and looks me in the eyes. Brushing away some stray strands of hair, he pauses, then kisses me on the forehead. I snicker lightly.

"You got a problem, Pyrope?" He asks.

"Oh nothing, scaredy-kat." I flash him a huge grin.

"Oh ha ha. You're so funny." I can almost hear his eyes roll.

"Damn straight." I say laughing. "You know, this isn't exactly black flirting."

"I suppose it's not." He replies. "In that case, I'm gonna do this." He says slyly, moving in.

His lips touch mine with the softest of pressure. My eyes instinctively flutter closed, even though it makes no difference to the darkness I see. It's a sweet kiss, one that shows how much he really does care. It's over pretty quickly though. But these things can't be rushed.

"Flushed for you," I whisper as our lips break contact.

"Flushed for you, too," he whispers in reply.

I snuggle deeper into his embrace and he puts my head under his chin. We stay like that for an immeasurable amount of time, just basking in each other's warmth.

* * *

Hi! I'm thekatqueen! You may or may not have seen my writing on AO3, but I'm going to be posting everything there, onto here as well.

This piece is the first completed story for the 30 day OTP challenge, which hasn't been, and won't be, done in 30 days. I'm pretty new to , but my friend told me this is a really good place to get reviews. This is the first piece I have ever posted online, so the ones I'll be posting over the next few days will hopefully be better. But no matter what, I'd really like to know anything I can improve on.

Thanks!

thekatqueen


End file.
